Low cost housing from shipping containers

[JohnnyRingo]

There's a new architectural movement to design modular pre-fab homes from used shipping containers like these:


Turning them into low cost homes like these:


And these:


Even entire complexes are foreseen:


Seems like a very noble and just project. A typical story of American ingenuity, but where are all the containers going to be found?
A: They can be found piled up at and around our major seaports. In some areas of LA the sun sets an hour earlier because of the wall of containers.

These containers pile up there because after arrival from countries like China, they're emptied and cast aside because sending them back empty is cost prohibitive.
We obviously have nothing to fill them with except our homeless as China accepts none of our imports.


The irony lies in the fact that more and more people will need these low cost shelters because the one thing we do export there are our jobs.
http://www.slate.com/id/2125101/

Fair Trade...Not Free Trade.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0119080/stories/2003/02/08/galleryBoxesAndCans.html

[Trillo]

1. We're not allowed to have them in our area.

county officials will condemn if neighbors complain.

Part of keeping the rich folk feeling good, I guess.

Edited to add:

Curiously, the local storage place less than a mile away has a bunch of them, and so does the public school, just around the corner, so, why any officials would do anything about it when citizens want one on their property, is obvious.

One more observation, these crates will block radio waves. It's kind of like tossing the tinfoil hat and getting a bigger steel replacement. Curiously, the building code lacks any similar EMF blocking rules for homes people are "allowed" to live in.

[Ian David]

2. William Gibson suggested it in his book, "All Tomorrow's Parties"

People were living in shipping containers attached to the bottom of The Golden Gate Bridge, for example.

www.williamgibsonbooks.com/books/parties.asp

[Warpy]

3. Most people will have a choice

Live in these things unaltered and look at all the real estate they used to think they owned sitting empty or break into that real estate and squat.

I know what my choice would be. Store the important stuff in a locked shipping container and squat in a house.

The rich and the conservative are the problem. Massive civil disobedience will be the answer.

[htuttle]

4. I get spam from a company that says they sell small factories/workshops

...pre-built inside these shipping containers.

Don't know if it's legitimate or not, but apparently somebody is doing this somewhere.

[Lars39]

5. I saw a program about steel Lustron houses the other day.

It would have provided 35,000 houses per year right after WWII,when there was a huge housing shortage. but The damned neocons back then sunk the whole thing.

http://www.wosu.org/archive/lustron/house.php

[sui generis]

6. yeah, let's not worry about overpopulation

let's just find some place to put everyone in the future.

it's a "noble" idea, but in practice those things are made of metal. Remember all those immigrants that get broiled in the back of semi's and train cars when they get locked in? This is the "container" they're broiling in.

We need a housing program that works, and containerizing our people is a nifty idea but not the best idea.

[Trillo]

14. Yes, without any insulation and in the sun, you are correct.

However, there are likely many fixes. One is to cover it with superadobe like Cal-earth uses in their domes, and second is to use spray insulation outside or inside, and third is to partly submerge them in the soil, obviously paying attention to drainage. The soil a foot or two down is a relatively constant temperature, I think it's around 60 degrees.

Say, if the ground is so cool, why are homes built entirely above ground so that during heat waves people need to run AC units?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Yeah, I saw a program about this on the DIY channel.

Some guy in the Netherlands built a pretty schnazzy crib out of these containers. Of course it had a sort of "guy who built a house out of beer bottles" novelty aspect to it, but...

:shrug:

[bigbrother05]

8. I/d live in them, if I had any design sense

Saw a program in England, where an architect put them together somewhat like Lego's, had a pretty neat house on the side of a hill.
Don't think they are just used for low income housing, they are recycling products.
We need to start looking outside the box, and quit conforming to the Jones.

[fasttense]

9. When I was a little girl and lived in Chile, a whole family of four

lived out of a huge cardboard box that a washer came in. I think this was about 1961. There were the ultra rich and the ultra poor but no middle class. Maybe we too can recycle cardboard boxes as housing for our poor?:sarcasm:

[catnhatnh]

10. Sorry, but I doubt it....

....as long as "housing" is meant to be an area with plumbing and electricity....Basically these are just durable boxes 40' x 8' x8' .....look at a modern mobile, or "manufactured home"...even single wides are 14-16' wide to avoid the "living in a tube" claustrophobia thing....Anyone with a real choice opts for a double wide which matches closely the dimensions of a normal ranch house....Anyhow by the time you fit these boxes with plumbing,electric, heating and cooling, and site prep and foundation services,the cost is high,the space is small,and the savings minimal....but for the dreamers out there, go ahead and try to design living quarters into a 40'x 8' space....remember you need at very least a private bath with shower,at least a double bed (let's make this for 2 people minimum)at least a minimal kitchen,and a living/dining area for two people...and oh yeah, it would be nice to see some plan for windows for ventilation and illumination and a plot to insulate the unit either from the exterior with some form of sheathing or protection for the insulation or from the interior without significant loss of floorspace....Just sayin'-nice but utopian and impractical.....

[WePurrsevere]

11. Holy smoke.. I have two of those in the backyard of our old house. They're

all over the place up here and rented out to folks for extra storage space.

A local business man must learned about them, bought a bunch of them from a nearby NorthEast port maybe and rents out either a 10 by 20 or a 10 by 40 on a monthly basis. His costs would be delivery, for which he pays a local towing company with a flat bed, the original purchase and some minor upkeep... brilliant. They're relatively cheap to rent (compared to storage rooms) and handy as heck since they're kept on the renters property. They were great for us while we sorted through the family estate, thankfully we'll be out of them next month and having him pick them up... the nominal cost to rent does add up over time and we now have a HUGE barn to use until we can do a second sort through and find new homes for all the "stuff".

The idea of reusing this stuff is appealing to me. With some modifications (insulation and ventilation being just two of them) I can envision how they could be used as small studio "homes" if two or more were linked together to make it a bit bigger. Hmm... we've been talking about building an art studio for me... I wonder how expensive it would be to buy a couple (or more) and get it to here.... B-)

(edited because I forgot to check spelling and notices two oops after posting.:dunce:)

[porphyrian]

12. They'd be a damn sight safer than trailers...

...you'd just have to ground them well in case lightening hit 'em.

[BooScout]

13. I saw a program about houses like this being built in the UK...

I was amazed. Whole apartment communities that were nice looking. They were being built for low income people. A wonderful way to recycle if you ask me.

[Jim Warren]

15. Not for everybody

But certainly would have applications for some. Like me for example. One great attribute would be that you could close it up and ship your home and stuff practically anywhere, if you wanted to.

Check this simple sketch out:
http://www.escapeartist.com/OREQ4/POD1.html

[catnhatnh]

17. Nice sketch....

and as an eternal adolescent I find it alluring, a pirate ship cum tree house cum dwelling unit...but my objections remain. I spent a summer as a seasonal camper in a trailer which are by law less than 8 1/2' and while summer was enjoyable I suspect it would be much less so during winter or mud season.....in summer I had a 12 x12 outdoor living area to stretch out in during the day.I suspect a week of bad weather forcing full indoor days might pall the charm...I once saw a proposal that any Vermont resident of a small cabin charged with murder during mud season should be found not guilty by reason of insanity...

[JohnnyRingo]

18. Like a 21st century gypsy...

I see the fascination with a Forrest Gump life style, but I wish we could reload those containers with washing machines built in Dayton, or bicycles made in Independence and return them to consumers across the sea.

Free trade laws reward companies that choose manufacture in low wage countries and even allow for off-shore banking to further avoid taxes.

It may sound like a Utopian dream these days, but I believe if the govt focused on domestic production as much as it encourages outsourcing, this scrap metal wouldn't represent the new American skyline and recycling them would not be practical.


That is a cool habitat sketch, by the way.
Thoreau would be proud of the simplicity of design.

[rageagnst]

16. hmmmm....

wonder if it comes with a working bathroom pre-installed....